market research

• questionnaire

  • reliable data
  • time consuming and expensive
• focus group

  • a group discussion among people selected from the target market
  • draws on psychology to provide qualitative insights into customer attitudes
  • expensive
• • observation
  • time consuming
  • costly
• social media feedback

  • ratings and actual comments
• • quantitative data gathered when factual research takes place among a large enough sample of people to provide statistically reliable results - e.g a survey of 500 people aged 14-24 years old
• • qualitative data
gathered by in-depth research into the opinions and views of a small group of potential or actual customers - it can provide insight into why customers buy what they buy
• • role of social media in collecting market research data
  • allows businesses to gather real time feedback, monitor trends etc
  • helps to understand target audience and conducting polls and surveys
• • importance of reliability in market research data
  • high quality consistent data reduces risk of errors and ensures data is valid
  • leads to better alignment with customer needs and market conditions
• Market Research-

  the process of gathering, processing and interpreting information about consumers' behaviour.
• The purpose of market research:

  ● to identify and understand customer needs

  ● to identify gaps in the market

  ● to reduce risk

  ● to inform business decisions.
• To identify and understand customer needs:

  • find out about what customers want or need
• To identify gaps in the market:

  • research that picks out which needs are already being filled by other products and which needs are unmet
  • its a good opportunity for businesses to exploit
• To reduce risk:

  • market may not want the new product
  • there may not be enough demand to cover the costs of developing and launching the product
  • good research should identify these in advance, reducing risk overall
• To inform business decisions:

  • Market research helps to reduce uncertainties involved in a business choice, improving the quality of decision-making
• Methods of market research:

  ● primary research: survey, questionnaire, focus group, observation

  ● secondary research: internet, market reports, government reports.
• Secondary research:

  research that has already been carried out for general purposes.
• Advantages of SECONDARY research:

  • free or available at low cost
  • usually conducted on a large enough scale to be reliable
• Disadvantages of SECONDARY research:

  • info may be out of date
  • often fails to answer specific questions that a business has
• Secondary sources:

  • reports in whole markets from large market research companies
  • newspaper articles
  • government statistical reports
  • internet based sources
• primary research-

  • research conducted first hand - tailored to a company’s specific needs
• Primary sources:

  • online surveys
  • questionnaires
  • focus groups
  • observations
  • social media feedback
• Advantages of PRIMARY research:

  • provides up-to-date information
  • focused specifically on businesses requirements
• Disadvantages of PRIMARY research-

  • takes time to collect and analyse
  • can be expensive to collect
• Online surveys

  • cheap
  • only answered by certain types of people so not reliably representative results